Photo: ivantsov/123RF
A coroner says trucks with a dangerous type of parking brake may still be on the roads.
Roadworker Joji Bilo was killed by a runaway truck late at night in Ngauranga Gorge near Wellington in early 2019.
Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale said the failure of a parking brake so sensitive that just shutting a truck door could easily dislodge it, caused his death.
But she said if the truck driver had parked with wheels pointed to the kerb, this would have been averted.
The truck that hit Bilo ran for 750 metres down State Highway One, scraping a median barrier.
Waka Kotahi issued alert after alert for over a decade about the brakes, which failed in 2010 killing a Dunedin man, but did not ban them until two years after Bilo's death.
The coroner's findings said 86 percent of trucks with the brake had been fixed and 164 trucks deregistered.
But she said police advised it was possible some were still unlawfully on the road, or being used on private land.
"This is, however, a risk that is difficult to mitigate unless and until each vehicle comes to the attention of the NZTA or vehicle inspectors," Coroner Borrowdale said.
"A recall of affected trucks is no longer necessary, as long as the NZTA remains committed - as it says that it is - to keeping off New Zealand's roads the few remaining vehicles that have not had their Sanwa Seiki brake mechanism replaced.
"I encourage NZTA to continue its vigilance in identifying and remediating all such affected vehicles, for as long as any may plausibly remain in active use in New Zealand."
Roadworks company Fulton Hogan was convicted on one health and safety charge over Bilo's death, for failing to ensure its contractors at the gorge site were operating safely, and fined $13,500 in 2022.
An expert report for NZTA said it should have banned the Sanwa Seiki type of parking brake years before, as RNZ has reported.
The expert also said Worksafe should have prosecuted NZTA. Worksafe said it did not because it decided this did not meet the guidelines that require there be a reasonable chance of success.
The distributor of most of the problem trucks, UD Trucks, had taken the position after the 2010 death that there was no design defect with the brake, but the brake had been incorrectly applied or was in poor condition, Coroner Borrowdale said.
Later, the company began putting out warning labels.
The truck that hit Bilo was given a Certificate of Fitness just eight days before its brake failed.
Vehicle Testing New Zealand should have been aware of a 2017 safety alert, the coroner said.
"Had a more thorough inspection been done, this fault would have been identified, resulting in the truck being removed from the road for urgent maintenance. The failure to identify the brake fault was a contributory failure."
VTNZ had no comment.
Fulton Hogan's executives apologised in court face to face to Bilo's family, whom the company had compensated.
His mother-in-law Una Kama told RNZ in 2021 that the inaction of authorities was appalling.
"To hear that even the police had recognised the dangers ... [it] just blows our mind on why NZTA did not have the common sense to listen," she said.
